Fish and fish products are consumed all over the world. With other seafood's, it provides the world's prime source of high-quality protein 14 to 16 percent of the animal protein consumed worldwide. Over one billion people rely on fish as their primary source of animal protein.
Fish and other aquatic organisms are also processed into various food and non-food products.
Fish and fish products are versatile and may be minced, frozen, chopped, formed, cooked, fermented, boiled, fried, breaded and processed in many ways.
Surimi is a paste made by fish or other meat, as well as multiple Asian foods that use Surimi as its primary ingredient. It is available in many shapes, forms, and textures, and often used to mimic the texture and color of the meat of lobster, crab and other shellfish. The most common Surimi product in the Western market is imitation crab meat. Such a product often is sold as imitation crab and mock crab in America, and as seafood sticks, crab sticks, fish sticks or seafood extender in Commonwealth nations. In Britain the product is sometimes known as Ocean sticks, to avoid trading standards issues regarding misadvertisement. In current production processes, lean meat from fish or land animals is first separated or minced. The meat then is rinsed numerous times to eliminate undesirable odors. The result is beaten and pulverized to form a gelatinous paste. In North America and Europe, Surimi also alludes to fish-based products manufactured using this process.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,141,766 discloses Surimi which consists essentially of the meat of catfish produced through a Surimi manufacturing process comprising the steps of mincing the meat of catfish after filleting, rinsing the minced meat, dehydrating the rinsed meat, adding condensed phosphates to the meat and mixing them together, grinding the mixture, and if desired, freezing the mixture.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,028,444 discloses a frozen Surimi product which comprises frozen Surimi and, as an effective ingredient, a mixture consisting essentially of sodium bicarbonate, calcium citrate and calcium lactate.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,806,378 discloses a method of producing frozen Surimi comprising: washing minced fish meat with a water solution, said solution containing one salt selected from the group consisting of calcium salts, magnesium salts and any combination thereof; dehydrating the washed minced fish meat; adding surface active agents to the dehydrated minced fish meat; and then freezing the resultant Surimi.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,223,301 discloses a process to produce higher grade Surimi from the flesh of fish using less fresh water comprising: mincing fish flesh into mince particles; crushing the mince particles to increase the surface area: volume ratio of the mince particles; washing the crushed mince particles with fresh water to remove water soluble proteins; dewatering the washed mince particles; refining by straining the dewatered mince particles; dewatering the refined mince particles; and mixing additives with the refined dewatered mince particles to produce Surimi.
Patent application US2007/0172575 discloses a nutritious, high protein, Zero carbohydrate pasta or bread is formed by combining animal protein with a binder, wherein the binder comprises substantially no digestible carbohydrates. A preferred composition comprises fish protein combined with guar gum. In an embodiment, odor, taste, texture, and color modifying ingredients are added, including for example a plant protein, ethyl maltol, salt, egg White, calcium carbonate, glycine, and/or polyphosphate.
Roll B. J. et al., How flavour and appearance affect human feeding. Proc. Nutr. SOC. (1982), 41, 109 argues that appearance of food can vary is in its shape. Changes in shape also alter the feel of food in the mouth and it is known that food consistency and bite size determine the jaw movements during feeding, see Thexton, A. J., Hiiemae, K. M. & Crompton, A. W. (1980). J. Neurophysiol. 44,456. It has been suggested that the muscle and neural activity associated with mastication play an important role in food preference and may affect the amount of food eaten. The shape and size of food pellets offered to rats have been found to affect food intake, see Tarozzi, G., Di Bella, L., Scalera, G. & Rossi, M. T. (1980); in Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on the Physiology of Food and Fluid Intake, Warsaw. To determine whether shape is also an important influence on feeding in humans, Roll et al. assessed the effect of offering a variety of shapes of food on total energy intake in a meal. The foods used were different shapes of pasta served with equal portions of tomato sauce. Subjects were tested twice, once with just the favorite shape repeatedly presented, and once with three different shapes (spaghetti, bow ties and hoops) presented in three successive courses. Roll et al., have found that there was a significant enhancement (˜14%, P<0.07) of intake with the variety of shapes. In the condition in which just one shape was presented it was found that the pleasantness of the food eaten decreased more than that of the foods not eaten and this could explain why the variety of shapes increased energy intake.
Thus it is a long felt need to provide ready-to-eat fresh edible products made of fish, fish products and Surimi products easily adaptable to a wide variety of tastes.